


Oaths on the Styx

by The_Shire_Hobbit



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Courage Triforce! Zelda, Just because i dont want to spoil stuff, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26400625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Shire_Hobbit/pseuds/The_Shire_Hobbit
Summary: Appointed knight and champion of Hyrule, Zelda wakes up to a world set 100 years after the great Calamity Ganon's attack.Memoryless is up to her follow the oath of protecting Hyrule at any cost - even if it's a burden too heavy to carry.
Kudos: 7





	1. Concerning sleepy hylians, Hyrule and apocalyptic prophecies

**Author's Note:**

> I've been dm-ing a BOTW rpg for about a month when the idea of knight Zelda came to mind. Hope y'all enjoy this.

Hylians were, as a race, less restrained: they were warriors, powerful wizards, always involved in intense battles and conflicts for power. But, after settling down, peace changed their bodies and minds making them sterile to magic - exception for members of the royal family - and to the affairs of the outside world, made them accommodated and with a certain taste for celebrations.

  
It is possible to define them in two words: numerous and ancient. Really ancient, yes. Having been the first people to settle in the territory, participations in history are undeniable (not only in this report but also in the history of very the world). Often, the folklore of its people is associated with the imaginary of the land. The clearest example to be observed is the royal family of Hyrule, so intricate with the legends that it is impossible not to know of the countless real family and political relationships when the object of study was quite another.

  
Descended from the goddess of wisdom, Hylia, the Royal Family settled in the Age of Prosperity and left their mark on the four corners of the provinces, whether in the form of temples, objects passed down by the royal lineage or legends. Mostly as legends.

  
The establishment of the Hylians and the kingdom of Hyrule was due to many conflicts. Because of their close connection with the past, there was always the risk that it would come back to haunt him. Comfort made them forget about demons, but the latter was still alive and eager to return, so the diviners prophesied. They called an emergency assembly to discuss old fears, old myths. The king believed it was a joke. But few jokes had as much likelihood as this one.

  
They spoke of an inevitable catastrophe, something that had been anticipated 10,000 years before that era of peace that accommodated Hyrule, a catastrophe that only the reincarnation of the goddess Hylia could prevent.

  
And on a summer night, in the penultimate decade of the last century of the Age of Prosperity, the reincarnation was born.

  
The king returned from the assembly, went to the nursery, and turned to the newborn. The boy slept, oblivious to the burden he had just been delegated. Just as, on the other side of the city, a young girl slept, who still did not know her role in the plot and the lives that were in her hands.

\------****------

  
She wasn't sure how long she had been in the dark, or even how she got there. Only began to question herself when light and a whisper asking her to wake up came to mind. The voice's pleading increased as the light intensified until, at last, she opened her eyes.

  
Immersed in a liquid that, as soon as she woke up, was drained, her vision blurred as her senses were gradually returning to activity. The place - a kind of chamber - was unfamiliar to her, as she did not remember entering it. Being honest, she didn't even remember anything that happened before she woke up.

  
Without many options, she got up and went to a pedestal near the chamber's only door.

  
_That is a Sheikah Slate. Take it. It will help guide you after your long slumber._  
_It was the voice from before._

  
Confused, and again, without much choice, she removed the stone from the luminescent pedestal. As if activated by the sudden movement, the stone shone in a familiar blue tone - almost as acquainted as if it were her own, even though she had never seen it. The pedestal withdrew as the room's door opened. A larger chamber was revealed, with some clothes and another pedestal at the door.

  
After getting dressed, she did not wait for instructions from the voice, put the stone on the pedestal, the door opened. The light outside invaded the chamber - and the girl's eyes - as if it were the first time in a long time. But how long?

  
_Zelda... you are the light – our light – that must shine upon Hyrule once again. Now go..._

  
- _Zelda..._ She repeated to herself. The sense of familiarity led her to believe that this was her name. 

  
Zelda obeyed the voice, came out of her tomb, towards the light.

  
She could smell the grass, hear the birds singing, feel the warmth of the sun, everything seemed so familiar and so new and only motivated her to run more and more. The only thing capable of stopping her was the edge of the cliff that she had just arrived.

  
The barrens stretched to the horizon, perhaps beyond, pastures, mountains, hills, many ruins. Zelda felt she had seen it all from different angles, although the ruins made her feel strange and even uncomfortable.

-Shine upon... Hyrule...

  
-It seems that someone finally woke up – Said someone whose presence was only noticeable now.

  
Zelda turned around in the direction of the voice and came across a man. Except for his massive white beard, his features were well hidden by a hood.

  
-And I see that you still maintain the habit of talking to yourself. Welcome back, Zelda.


	2. Bergetrükung

Zelda was taken by surprise. There was no one else there but her and the man.  
“Who are you?”

  
The man looked at her, smiled, and began to walk calmly to the foot of the hill. Zelda was astonished. How disrespectful of him for not answering the question and walking away, she thought.

  
"Hey, I'm talking to you! She shouted, still at the edge of the cliff.

  
The man went on his way without even looking back. Zelda then decided to make it her mission to get answers from the man and ran after him.

  
"Look, you know my name, so you sure know me and now I need some answers." Zelda waited for an answer. The man continued, murmuring something that sounded very much like a song.

Frustrated by not getting the man's attention - but still invested in the idea of interrogating him - Zelda decided to start to pay attention to the way. The chamber where she had rested was a cave on a mountainside. The entrance and the dirt path leading to the cave were covered with grass. They haven't been used for a long time. Another indication of disuse, Zelda noted, was the timid wildlife, unaccustomed to seeing people in pass by.

  
Zelda looked up at the sky and sighed.

  
"How long has anyone been here?"

  
They got to a small rocky shelter at the foot of the hill, and under the rock ceiling, there was a fire burning with a small metal pan over the fire.

  
"A long time. It is very unusual to see another soul in these parts." Said the man, sitting by the fire.

  
He answered! That was the opening she wanted.

  
"Who are you?"

  
"Me? No... I will spare you from my life story. I'm just a fool who's been living here, alone, and for a long time." The man started to stir the ember with a staff – or cane, depending on the point of view – "What brings you, a bright-eyed young woman, to a place like this?"

  
Zelda remembered the wilderness, the view of the horizon, how familiar everything looked, but names eluded her.  
"Where are we? And I still want to know how you know me." She retorted, crossing her arms.

  
"Answering a question with a question and a half? Fair, but I will only answer one. We are on the Great Plateau. Legend has it that this is where the Kingdom of Hyrule began."

  
The old man got up, leaning on his staff, and left the stone alcove. He pointed to a decaying building. Most of the towers in the main building were still standing, but the secondary building, made of stone, was covered with moss and barely retained the original shape of the building's floorplan.

  
"That temple used to be the site of numerous sacred celebrations. But since the kingdom downfall 100 years ago, it has remained abandoned. Just another abandoned entity, a shadow of what it used to be." The old man lowered his head as if talking about himself.  
"100 years... Was it possible that I had spent that much time asleep?"

  
There was an unknown weight in the words of the man who put them both into a trance, immersed in thought.

  
"But that's a story for another occasion." Said the man, cutting the spell of the apparent ... nostalgia, perhaps? "I'm sure that, after your rest, you want to move around a little." I'll be here if you need me."

  
Zelda got up and took a torch from behind the man and lit it on fire. The man was surprised and asked:  
"Ah, you found the torch. Forgive me, but what do you intend to do with that?" Zelda wielded the torch and thought hard about the answer.

  
"Set things on fire!"

  
"Your enthusiasm is ... unnerving. It seems like a good idea to use it as a weapon, in case of monsters appear. I believe you will find out how it works." Said the man, turning his attention to the fire.

  
Monsters. Decay. One hundred years. Why did the man refuse to answer her questions? How did he know her? Who was she anyway? These words and sentences repeated in an annoying pattern in the young woman's head.

  
Again, Zelda's path was interrupted by a cliff's edge. This time, the bottom was a lake with a rock in the center and many submerged objects. There was a sword on an improvised stone pedestal on top of the rock.

  
"Weird... Was it a kind of tribute?" Zelda said, leaning over to better observe the object.  
The old soil of the Plateau, after eons of rain, gave away to Zelda's weight and she fell into the lake.

  
Underwater, the objects became more visible:  
They were armored bodies, spears, swords, chunks of carriages. A lake of the dead.

  
_Zelda... Zelda... Go to the point marked on your Sheikah Slate map._

  
It was the same voice as the one in the tomb calling to her again. Her breath was short, making her return to the surface. She looked around, and there was no one else with her.  
Zelda, go to the point marked on the map on your Sheikah Slate.

  
Zelda swam through the water lilies to a flat rock next to the one that served as a pedestal for the sword, climbed on it, and drew the device at her waist. The Sheikah Slate screen glowed dark blue with some neon details and, in the upper corner, a yellow marking.

  
The problem was that, because the map was a blue void, she had no idea how to get there. Zelda took a deep breath, put away the Sheikah Slate, got off the small platform, and swam to the lakeshore. The lake bank was a slope, and from there, Zelda was able to see more ruins, including the secondary building she had seen before.

  
"It must be in that direction ..." She said trying to mentally overlap the landscape with the non-explanatory map.

  
Before she could take the first step toward destiny, Zelda heard a snarl. Instinctively, she lowered herself onto the grass and, in the distance, saw a red silhouette moving erratically. Zelda looked at the map on the Sheikah Stone and in the direction of the creature. Something inside her advised her to avoid the creature - and eventual conflicts - at all costs.

  
Zelda walked crouched down behind the ruins, praying that the creature wouldn't hear her heartbeat; The creature sniffed, sniffed and sniffed, but was unable to detect any strange presence. Zelda followed the mark to an old grassy courtyard, surrounded by small campsites of creatures like the one from before. She took one last look at the map to make sure she was in the right direction, took a deep breath, and started running.

  
The sound of footsteps against the grass and Zelda's wheezy breath caught the attention of the "camp" that was just beyond the courtyard, grunts and squeaks alerted others that were out of sight. Zelda entered a wide field without vegetation with a strange rock formation, which was just in the trajectory indicated by the map.

  
The growls seemed closer and closer, and she had less and less breadth and strength to keep running. Exhausted, she reached the strange rocks and observed a stone pedestal with inscriptions similar to that of the chamber.

  
"Insert the Sheikah Slate into the pedestal." Said an automated voice.

  
Zelda was confused as to how that would help, but when she was almost hit by an arrow, she decided to try her luck. She placed the Slate on the pedestal that changed the tone of its orange glow to the blue she was used to.

  
"Sheikah Tower activated. Please watch out for rockslides."

  
"Wait, what?" Zelda asked the pedestal.  
She soon got her answer. It seemed that the world as a whole was shaking. The rocks that hid the pedestal fell one by one, and the pedestal - or rather, the platform it was in - rose to form a tower.

  
"Distilling information..." Said the tower.

  
Over the pedestal, there was a triangular monolith with more inscriptions and symbols. They began to shine and trickle down to the tip until they formed a drop that ran like a tear from the eye symbol and fell on the Sheikah Slate.

  
"Map of the region extracted."

  
Zelda, who was bending down to protect herself, got up and took the Stone off the pedestal.

  
"That would have been useful earlier..." She grunted.

  
Zelda looked around. Several other towers had emerged in different places, different pieces of a puzzle.

  
Remember… Please, try to remember...  
It was the voice. It sounded much louder now.

  
Zelda turned towards the voice and saw an intense glow, like the one from before she woke up. The glow came from a castle or fortification with strange columns standing against the building.

  
You've been asleep for the last 100 years...  
" _But this whole time would have killed me. It will be possible?_ " thought Zelda.

  
But she was soon interrupted by another earthquake that also seemed to come from the castle. A strange purple mist began to encircle the castle, and from within the mist, a large wild boar-shaped cloud began to form.

  
"The beast... " said Zelda as if she had already seen that macabre silhouette.  
When the beast awakens, this world will face its end.

  
Those words began to echo in Zelda's mind like a whirlwind of mixed pictures until, then, she passed out.

  
When she came back to, it was night time, and she was in the ruins of the ancient temple, no longer at the top of the tower.

  
"You have to stop losing consciousness when the world needs your help most." Said the old man without looking away from the fire he had lit. "What happened up there?"

  
"I heard a voice... It was his voice, the prince's voice. "Zelda trailed, more to herself than to the old man. "Why don't I remember anything?! Who are you?!"

  
"Now that you already remember at least the basics, I see no reason to hide my identity anymore." The old man stood up and walked towards Zelda, "I am King Rhoam Bosphoramus, the last king of Hyrule."That being said, an intense glow enveloped him and changed his appearance: he wore royal robes and his silhouette floated in a ghostly light.

  
"I ruled in the last years of the Prosperity Era. They spoke of a prophecy, an ancient evil that would destroy everything and everyone in its path: Calamity Ganon." Rhoam snapped and looked in the direction of the castle. "But they also spoke of mechanical allies built by our ancestors and of a prince and a knight, chosen by the Sword that Seals the Darkness."

  
"100 years ago, there was a prince who would inherit the sacred power and his knight. To pilot the machines, we selected individuals from each nation. They were dubbed the Champions and  
were on the brink of defeating Ganon when he outwitted us... The prince was my own son, Link. And the knight, who fought to protect you until the very end, was you."

  
Zelda managed to form the images, memories of her distant past. Who were those people? Were they close?

  
"I could not protect my kingdom, nor my son, so I have no right to ask you to do that. But please, the fate of these lands rests on your shoulders. Save Hyrule."

  
Zelda assimilated everything that the king had said with difficulty. A bitter taste formed in her mouth. She looked into the king's eyes, in his sincere plea, and said:

  
"I still don't know how I'll do this, but I'll do my best."

  
"You must strengthen yourself mentally and physically. Train, go to Kakariko Village to restore your device and please, Zelda, come back alive..." Said the king, with a delicacy not shown until then, and marked the point that Zelda should go on her Sheikah Slate.

  
"Oh! I was almost forgetting." Said King Rhoam "In this chest, you will find some items of great value for your journey"

  
The king revealed a large iron chest behind him. In it, there was a small cloth Paraglider, a shield, and a sword. Zelda collected the items, and now, properly equipped, she was taking her first step towards her odyssey - she did not remember where she had heard this word, but it seemed very appropriate. She waved to the king and started walking.

"Good luck, Zelda. Please do not set fire to anything that is not hostile ..." Said King Rhoam, as he disappeared from the physical plane.

  
And so, illuminated by the stars and guided by the Sheikah Stone, Zelda went to Kakariko, with each step heavier than the previous one.  
And inside the castle, the beast grew stronger and waited for the time to return.


End file.
